Events succeed one another thick and fast. The ministerial leapfrog is continuing. Everyone there is clearly jumping about as if there was a fire. Things that were once spoken of in whispers are now discussed openly by all.

A biting frost, and not only outside, but indoors as well. My nose has started running and I can feel the beginnings of that particular fatigue which heralds the approach of influenza (or, as it is fashionable to say, “la grippe”).

We had breakfast in the palace today in honour of the Romanian prince, who is going back to Romania and will be leaving for Moscow this evening. I sat next to his Highness, of which I was glad. His Highness enlivened the conversation greatly. The Empress is tense and silent all the time, and the grand duchesses were in their nurses’ uniforms, which constrains them; the atmosphere was very cold. After breakfast the Empress sat with me. His Highness stood speaking with the prince and the other men, while the grand duchesses spoke among themselves separately. There is no sign of a rapprochement. They are so remote from everything it is impossible to speak to them about anything: reading, art, society, people, or anything.

How to transform and reshape a party that is currently incapable of conducting a systematic, stubborn and, no matter what the circumstances, genuine revolutionary struggle, into a party such as would be capable of this task?

How Can I Serve My Country? What can I do in case of war? Well, what would you do? The whole question of how a man can best serve the United States in a war is difficult to answer, because the Government has made no comprehensive plan for the utilization of the country’s various kinds of abilities.